Page 4 - 2015 Veterans

4C – Wednesday, November 11, 2015 – El Dorado NEWS-TIMES
sons.
Lutman follows in family footsteps
By Kelsey Womack kwomack@eldoradonews. com
Normally when a person serves in the military, deploy- ment means being taken away from family. But for Chris Lut- man, it meant seeing his father right when he landed on the tar- mac.
“My dad was in the Air Force and was in charge of all the en- listed security police in Dhah- ran at the time. He was going his way, and I was going to my little base and we actually met there in our desert camo uniforms. He had all these little stripes, and I only had a couple. It was really neat to actually meet in Saudi Arabia, and he went to Dhah- ran and I went to Ta’if,” he ex- plained.
Enlisting straight out of high school in 1990, Lutman ex- plained that the original plan was to do six years in the Air Force. With a drive to become a member of the branch because of his father, who was a chief master sergeant, Lutman carved his own memorable military ex- perience.
“I enlisted as security police and in basic training, you have different units that come down on what is like a recruiting trip. So while I was in basic train- ing, the Air Force Presidential Honor Guard from Washing- ton, D.C., came in on a recruit- ing trip. You had to be a certain height to go in front of the panel of about 10 people and answer questions, and I was actually se- lected,” he said.
Ordered to go to Korea first, plans changed when the orders were cancelled. He was selected to be in the Presidential Honor Guard.
“Essentially, what that is is each branch of the military is represented by a presidential honor guard so we did all the jobs at the White House, the Pentagon and Arlington Cem- etery. We represented the en- tire Air Force, and I spent three years of my military career there. There was nothing like it — it was fantastic and crazy,” he reminisced.
When he was sent to Ta’if, he did security for the U-2 spy planes.
“There were missions con- stantly, and we also did perime- ter controls around the base. We went out to Bahrain and went to the markets, and I remember getting a gold chain, which gold was fairly inexpensive there. It was very interesting because it was a culture shock for all of us to see the shops shut down when it was prayer time for the Muslims. We would just kind of
stand around and wait for the shops to open back up. It didn’t matter if they heard the call or not — people would pull over in their cars and start doing their prayers, which was pretty neat,” he explained.
He noted a particularly mem- orable time during his career when Operation Olive Branch was in effect at the end of the Gulf War.
“The most chilling thing that happened was when we won during the Gulf War and the honor guard actually marched in a ticker tape parade in New York City where all the sky- scrapers are — it was literally four to six inches of ticker tape, and the whole city cheered as we are hang these big parades. I was representing the whole Air Force, and we would have their generals in charge of their units and our little color team marching. I have never felt more proud to be an American in the military at the time,” he said.
He also highlighted that he was able to go to Pearl Harbor for the 50th anniversary and was a representative of the drill team. While on the team, he noted that he was lucky enough to be featured on television do- ing drills. “I’ve met the Queen of England, the president of
Russia at the time, Boris Yeltsin, all these dignitaries because they were in D.C., and I had White House special clearance — it was just awesome,” he ex- plained.
Fear of the unknown was the most difficult part of his mili- tary experience, he said. How- ever, once he got in his routine, it got much easier. He attended college and volunteered as a teacher’s aide while in the mil- itary.
“I was always very introvert- ed, but I wanted to do things for others. When I enlisted, I want- edtobejustlikemydadanddo a whole tour, but when I was in Washington, I did a special duty assignment. I was actually on a security detail for Dick Cheney when he was secretary of de- fense, so I did a three-month tour at the Pentagon. During the course of that, I would talk to Gen. Colin Powell and others. I was promised a security detail for Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to do security police. I was real- ly excited and ready to go,” he said.
However, he would not make it to Andrews. Instead, he was ordered to go to Malstrom Air Force Base in Montana, doing security for nuclear missile si- los. He was supposed to finish
his military career at Malstrom, but he found himself feeling in- credibly unfulfilled.
“I love the East Coast, Vir- ginia, all of that. I hated it at Malstrom because I’m not an outdoors man and it was so cold. I felt like what I was doing didn’t have meaning, probably because of what I came from, so I requested an early out,” he said.
By 1994, Lutman was dis- charged from the Air Force as a senior airman. That next year, be became a law enforcement officer in Little Rock, knowing he wanted to serve.
However, he soon lost it all.
“I was very selfish, I did six and a half years there and it was always more money. I had two houses and new cars and lost it all,” he said.
He eventually found employ- ment at Walmart and worked his way up to management. Af- ter that, he became a restaurant manager for Ryans Buffet and made his way to El Dorado.
“I tried to make it work there, but I eventually quit because I wanted to spend more time with my kids. A customer came in one day and told me they were hiring for officers at the El Do- rado Police Department. Poor decisions led me to coming to El Dorado, but on the flip side,
that is the best thing that has happened to me because God has given me such a clear vision about my purpose in life, which is not about me, but about Him,” he said.
When he’s not at the EPD, Lutman enjoys spending time with his wife, Karen, and his children. He is currently work- ing on obtaining his bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice at Southern Arkansas Universi- ty, a member of the El Dorado School Board, a deacon at his church and is involved in help- ing the community outside of his employment.
“My wife and I have a minis- try and we go to Haygood Neal Apartments and do laundry for free. We are just being obedi- ent to what God wants us to do and we go three from five until eight p.m. and people show up. Last time, we had 11 families, we hope for more,” he said.
Lutman said that service is key to him.
“At one time, Chris was only thinking about Chris. There is only so far you can go with that. Being a servant leader, anybody can talk about these things, but to actually put legs into it and to do it, I’m just very passionate about that. I believe that God has blessed all of us with a set of skills,” he said.
Veterans know many of the heroes serve on the homefront
On our convoy trips through the Iraqi desert, we would usual- ly get to Scania, this lit-
One, I knew every time the phone rang and the caller ID showed some sort of weird number that Mom and Dad were halfway scared to answer it, not knowing what the message might be.
Two, they would always ask what I was doing and where I was, and I couldn’t tell them either, and that just added to their worry. I’d try to be vague with my an- swers and suggest that we weren’t doing much of anything, but I don’t think I was too convincing.
That’s the thing about going off to war: War is hell, and it’s no fun for the men and women fighting it, but in many ways, it’s harder on the folks back home.
When you’re living and working in a combat zone, you have to maintain your
focus. Your head has to stay in the game. You can’t worry about what’s happening half a world away. If you do, you might end up like a guy in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He called home one time only to find out that his wife was cheating on him. He barricaded himself in a bunker and took his life. There’s just not room for that kind of mental agony when people are trying to kill you because of the uni- form you’re wearing. So, you don’t think about home. Much. You think about what you need to do to get through the here and now.
For spouses, parents, children, brothers, sisters, friends and on and on, the mind can wander to painful places in those long days and nights when a loved one is
serving overseas. The worries can pile up. The concerns can become overwhelming. The uncertainties, numbing.
At that point, a telephone ring can be at once a welcome and a boding, fearful thing. The daily trip to the mailbox can be an exciting reward or a disappoint- ing nothing. Holidays and birthdays and anniversaries come and go, often without acknowledgement. That’s just how it is for those serving in the mili- tary and those back home serving with them.
So, yes, it’s right and proper to hon-
or the men and women serving in the military and those who have served, and this veteran believes that there are just as many heroes on the homefront.
Rick Fahr
tle refueling station, in the middle of the night, local time, Iraq time.
That meant that it would be mid-morning back home. For some reason, the phones seemed to work better at Scania than they did on our home base. So, I generally tried to call home from there.
I hated to make those calls for a couple rea-
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